Russia: Regular season over, playoff bracket shaped!

The regular season in the 2020/21 Russian Superliga Parimatch is officially over.
The only issue still to be settled was that of fifth place, and Fakel Novy Urengoy easily confirmed their position in the standings by overwhelming Belogorie Belgorod 3-0. Lokomotiv Novosibirsk remains sixth, defeating Io Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 3-0. Orenburg moved up to 12th place by beating Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 3-0, while the victories of Dinamo Moscow on Saturday and Kuzbass Kemerovo were irrelevant.
However, these outcomes didn’t affect the already established ranking in the charts: the no.1 Dinamo Moscow and vice-leaders Kuzbass have qualified for the Final Six earlier, while eight teams that follow the leading duo in the standings will play for the remaining 4 spot in the final tournament through the Preliminary Round of playoffs.

Matchups of the Preliminary Round of playoffs:
Zenit-Kazan (3) – Yenisey Krasnoyarsk (10)
Zenit Saint Petersburg (4) – Yugra-Samotlor (9)
Fakel Novy Urengoy (5) – ASK Nizhniy Novgorod (8)
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (6) – Ural Ufa (7)

| RESULTS & PROGRAM ROUND 26
| March 12
• Zenit Saint Petersburg – Gazprom Surgut 3:1 (25:15, 25:20, 23:25, 25:19)

| March 13
• Dinamo Moscow – Dinamo L0 3-2 (25:20, 21:25, 22:25, 25:22, 15:10)

| March 14
• Lokomotiv Novosibirsk – Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 3:0 (25:19, 25:17, 25:16)
Top Scorers: Luburic 17, Savin 14, Rodichev 11, Shcherbinin 7; Masliev 12, Papazov 11, Verniy 6.

• ASK Nizhniy Novgorod – Kuzbass Kemerovo Kuzbass Kemerovo 0:3 (13:25, 19:25, 23:25)
Top Scorers: Pyatirkin 11, Vietskiy 11; Markin 13, Zaytsev 12, Krsmanovic 9, Shcherbakov 8, Sivozhelez 6.

• Fakel Novy Urengoy – Belogorie Belgorod 3:0 (25:14, 25:17, 25:16)
Top Scorers: Volkov 13, Bogdan 9, Zhigalov 9, Gutsalyuk 8; Sidenko 8, Kuznetsov 6, Chervyakov 5.

• Neftyanik Orenburg – Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 3:0 (25:23, 25:19, 25:20)
Top Scorers: Shchemyatikhin 15, Purin 13, Kuhno 10, Kranin 10; Skrimov 13, Iereshchenko 8, Gavrilov 8, Maksimov 5.

| FINAL STANDINGS (updated on March 14)
Dinamo Moscow 67
Kuzbass Kemerovo 61
Zenit Saint Petersburg 55
Zenit Kazan 54
Fakel Novy Urengoy 54
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk 53
Ural Ufa 40
ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 31
Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 32
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 25
Gazprom Surgut 21
Dinamo LO 20
Belogorie Belgorod 17
Neftyanik Orenburg 16